Red Green Does New Years

Red and the gang celebrate New Year's Eve their way.

Cast (in order of appearance):, , , , , , , , ,

Original Air Date: January 25, 2002

DVD: The Red Green Show – 2001 Season

Watch the episode on YouTube

Segment Summary
See also: Transcript

Plot: Red, Harold and the rest of the Possum Lodge crew celebrate New Year's Eve, with special emphasis on different lodge members' New Year's resolutions.

Opening Scene: Red shows a way to control alcohol consumption by installing the mechanisms for a clock radio into a soda vending machine filled with cans of beer instead of soda.

The Possum Lodge Word Game: Dalton tries to guess the word "kiss" to win a free tuxedo rental.

Handyman Corner: Red turns a car into a noisemaker for New Year's.

Talking Animals: Ed plans (reluctantly) to release a flock of doves to celebrate the New Year.

The Experts: Red, Mike and Dalton discuss the meaning of "Auld Lang Syne".

Handyman Corner #2: Red makes his own homemade champagne for New Year's.

Ranger Gord's Educational Films: "Forest New Year's", in which Gord, Little Red and Little Harold try to throw a lucky rock over the moon to ring in the New Year.

Adventures: The guys all do their own version of the Times Square ball drop for New Year's.

Red's Handyman Tips: Red comes up with a complex method of preventing guests from driving home after drinking.

Buddy System: Dalton and Mike advise men that they should go with their wives to a New Year's party, even if they don't want to.

Handyman Corner #3: Red uses toaster elements to make a lit-up New Year's message.

Midlife: Red talks about the midnight kiss.

If It Ain't Broke, You're Not Trying: Mike brings in an inflatable pool chair for Red to fix because it has holes in it. He plans to use the chair to fly around the world and celebrate New Year's in each timezone.

Goofs

 * In the If It Ain't Broke, You're Not Trying segment, Mike mentions that the Earth is divided into 24 time zones. Even though there are 24 different primary time zone strips with one-hour offsets, there are actually 39 time zones, including time zones that are offset by 15 or 30 minutes, plus two that exist between the 180th meridian to the west and the International Date Line to the east that include islands in the central tropical Pacific Ocean (including Kiritimati, the very first piece of dry land to celebrate New Year's), thus making these islands the first places in the world to celebrate New Year's.
 * During the Adventures segment, in their initial attempts to get Walter down from hanging airborne from the large bunch of balloons, his friends have popped all but five of the balloons with stones, but then a moment later, when they try throwing the football and then the pitchfork, there are a lot of balloons again.

Inside References

 * The prize in the Word Game is a free tuxedo rental from Featherstone's Funeral Home. This Featherstone may or may not be Roderick Featherstone, who was the subject of the Famous People In Possum Lake History segment from The Battle Call.
 * The transition scene in the Educational Film scene was also used in the Educational Film scene in Twinning.

Real-World References

 * During the Talking Animals segment, Ed mentions Noah's Ark.
 * The transition scene during the Educational Film is a spoof on an identical scene used on the old Batman TV series, except with Ranger Gord's grinning face in place of the Batman logo.
 * The Adventures segment involves Red and the gang doing their own version of the Times Square New Year's ball drop. Times Square is a famous intersection in the Midtown Manhattan area of New York City, where New Year's is celebrated by dropping a mirrored ball in time with a countdown to the new year.
 * During the third Handyman Corner segment, Red's mention that "today's Handyman Corner is brought to you by the letter 'T'" is a parody of a popular quote used on the kid's show Sesame Street.
 * A Coca-Cola vending machine is used in the opening scene.
 * The vinegar bottle used in the second Handyman Corner segment is a large bottle of Heinz vinegar, however, the Heinz name is covered over with black tape.

Famous People

 * During the first Handyman Corner segment, Red parodies the name of the musical group Guy Lombardo and The Royal Canadians, whose rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" helped make that song a popular New Year's staple in North America and is still the first song played on New Year's Day in Times Square.
 * During the second Handyman Corner segment, Red parodies the phrase "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." This line was actually spoken not by Julius Caesar, as Red claims, but by Mark Antony, in the play Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare.
 * Before he shows his Educational Film, Ranger Gord mentions The Captain and Tenille, who performed "Muskrat Love".